Your Brooms Are Standing on Their Own Today – But They Did Yesterday, Too

Over the last few days, you may have seen people going crazy on social media about how their brooms are standing by themselves.

The reason given is either something to do with the Earth's axis or the planetary alignments.

Unfortunately, while this is a cool trick, it has nothing to do with gravitational forces (from other planets, at least) or with the Earth's axis.

The truth, however, does have to do with physics. Basically, you are using the stiffness of the bristles to create a platform stable enough for the boom to balance on.

This CNN video does a good job explaining the phenomena

So, have fun posting pics and videos of this on Facebook and Instagram and feel free to tell your friends whatever you want about why it works. We'll just keep the real (kinda' boring) reason between us.